


Close Your Eyes

by blue_blondie101



Category: Tangled: The Series (Cartoon)
Genre: Everything Hurts, Insomnia, Nightmares, Temporary Character Death, The Author Regrets Everything, Varian (Disney) Has Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-18
Updated: 2018-09-18
Packaged: 2019-07-13 20:14:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16025183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_blondie101/pseuds/blue_blondie101
Summary: A quick look into Varian post-amber incident.•WARNING: Gore and horrific themes••UPDATED VERSION UP NOW•





	Close Your Eyes

"So the last formula didn't deliver quite the reaction we hoped," Varian remarked, stirring together two chemicals to make a thick, glowing, neon green liquid, holding it up to the light to take a good look, "so what?" He spun around to the dark rocks that had begun to infest his house, holding the beaker up with a gloved hand and tipping it over oh so slowly. "The important thing is that we got a reaction--" 

"Son, I just want to--" Varian's father, Quirin, opened the creaky wooden door, startling Varian and forcing him to turn around, letting the chemicals splatter onto the rock's surface. Quirin's eyes widened when he saw the rocks, and he began marching into the room with purpose, commanding respect,  
"Varian, I told you to stay away from those rocks!" Quirin motioned toward the shards of thick stone piercing through the floor, threatening to tear alert their home. His voice was deep and smooth, but it was tinged with anger, betrayal, and... Worry.

/why was he worried then?/

"Um, yeah, ok, I-I know you said, but, Dad--" Varian stuttered, cut off by his father's booming voice,  
"Then there should be no misunderstanding! Listen to me when I-"  
"No!" Varian cried, shoving his father away in a fit of rage, pent up from being pushed to the side for his ideas,

/why did i shove him away? how could I have done that when that was my last chance to say goodbye?/

"No, you listen to me, Dad, our village is dying," he pointed out the window to the blade-sharp stones that had started to slice through the homes of dozens of neighbors and friends, "and you think running away from the problem is going to fix it? No, these rocks aren't going away!" Varian was now nose to nose with his father, his face twisted red with anger and fear. Fear of the rocks, fear for his city, and, most importantly, fear that his father wouldn't listen to him. Again.  
"I know, Varian, but there is more to them than you can possibly imagine." His father explained vaguely, holding his fingers to his forehead, which has started to sweat from the heat of the argument and of the chemicals that had started to bubble and burn and crystalize at the rocks, going unnoticed by the two men.

/why couldn't have i noticed sooner? if i had, everything could have been avoided./

"Then why won't you tell me?" Varian asked, his father turning away to walk out of the door, walking away from him just like the last times he had asked questions. 'No, he can't leave, not yet-- not when he knows something' Varian thought to himself. "Dad," his voice cracked, "I just-- I deserve to know." The boy turned his back on the rocks, facing his father who had become silent.

/why couldn't he have told me? why did he go silent? what has he been hiding?/

"I'm sorry, son, but you are not ready." Quirin turned around just in time to see the sharp, bright green crystals infect the rest of the eerily contrasting stone, reaching out to touch his unaware son with their sickly branches.  
"Varian, watch out!" He screamed, racing to shove his son out of the way and onto the stone floor, only for his arm to be encased with a sickly yellow amber that clawed at it's surroundings like a wolf in a steel cage.  
Varian looked up in horror as the crystals washed over his father's skin like a plague, corrupting everything it touched. He fumbled up and ran for his father, unable to look away as the amber continued to spread. "Oh, Dad, Dad! Oh, gah- hold on Dad, hold on! I-I'm-- I'll get you out--"

"No! Stay away from me!" Quirin snarled through gritted teeth, eyes formed into dagger-like slits, turning around only once to watch helplessly as the amber continued it's path, looking back in unadulterated fury at his son. "Stay away from me, Varian, you've done enough." He spat.  
Varian flinched, stepping away from his father,

/no, this... this isn't right... this isn't what happened.../

"D-Dad, I--" Varian tried to say something, anything to his father, reaching helplessly to him with shaking hands,  
"Do not say a word," Quirin warned, "I knew this was bound to happen one day. An experiment gone wrong, and then someone got hurt. I just can't believe you were ignorant enough to let it be me." Varian's eyes widened in fear and shame. His father was right, none of this would have happened if he had been more aware, but he had been careless and childish, thinking he could solve all of the kingdom's problems with a flick of his wrist.  
But Quirin wasn't done.  
"I knew you would be nothing like me from the day you were born. You were always finding ways to cause me trouble and make more messes! Why couldn't you have been a normal kid? Why did you have to grow up and let this happen, boy?" 

 

Varian scrambled to the amber, pounding his fists at parts that had dried into the stone on the ground, "No, no, no! I-I can fix this! I'll get you out and you'll be proud and you won't be angry anymore and... and..." He desperately grasped for his father's free hand and pulling at it with as much strength as he could muster in his thin arms, but to no avail. The amber was as unbreakable as the rocks it originated from.  
Quirin slapped his hand away before the amber took control of his shoulder, "Don't touch the rocks, you stupid boy! I can't believe the self proclaimed 'greatest alchemist in Corona' is such an idiot he, not only his own father stuck, but himself too!" His father spat at the ground in front of Varian's shoes before the amber closed around his throat, leaving his dark eyes to stare directly into his son's soul and letting the guilt and fear there swirl into a storm. "You're a disgrace, Varian. Now face what you've done." 

And with that, Varian watched as the rest of Quirin was swallowed up with the amber.

"N-no, God, no-- Dad, I... I..." Varian was at a loss for words, staring blankly at the parody of his father's scornful face, rigid with seething hate.

/no, this can't be what happened... this isn't real.../

/is it?/

Varian fell to his knees, his sobs echoing off of the cold walls and ringing in his ears. He gripped the edges of the amber, pretending that, somehow through the hard gem shell, his father would feel his arms wrapped around him know a grief stricken hug. But his hopes were useless, and he curled into himself with his head between his knees in failure. Varian knew his father was right. His own ignorance had gotten his father trapped or... No, Varian couldn't think of that. That option couldn't be his reality. He knew he should have been more careful, shouldn't have been arguring with his father and paid more attention to the chemicals he had spilled. But he hadn't. Now his father paid the price. His tears fell onto the ground, the quiet 'drip' the only sound in the cellar once his sobs had diminished with that realization.

/my fault. this is all my fault. i did this, and now my dad's trapped when it should have been me! i should be stuck there, not him!/

His thoughts racked his brain, causing chaos in every corner of his mind. All he could hear was Quirin's voice hissing at him as if Varian had fed him something sour. Hissing like the chemicals on the rocks. Hissing like the cracks of amber on skin.  
"What?" Varian whispered, jerking his head up to see the amber cracking and crumbling around his father. For a horrible second, Varian believed his father would shatter with it, leaving him with no hope of survival; but, miraculously, Varian watched in awe as Quirin crawled his way out of the amber with a mighty roar, one filled with fury and determination.  
"Dad! Oh my God, I cant believe it! You... You..." Varian's joy was short-lived, gasping in fear and disgust when he saw what had become of his father. Or what was left of him.

The amber had crawled into his ears and eyes, leaving dark, bloody, oozing, pits of yellow and crimson in their wake. Chunks of hair and skin had been torn off from his father's escape and other parts of his body had amber laced into his flesh and bone, covered in blood and pieces of tissue. His leg and arm were bent at an uncomfortable angle, and his hand and foot covered in the crystal, his left hand a blade of gemstone. Quirin looked at Varian with cold, dead eyes that held no remorse. No recognition. No humanity.  
"D-Dad?" Varian whispered in the silence, reaching out tentitevly to his dad, "Are... Are you ok?"  
The house was still. Silent. A pin could have dropped and you could have heard it from the thick quiet.  
Varian was ultimately caught off guard when his father lunged at him, yelling and screaming and frothing at the mouth as he pushed his son onto the ground, straddling him like a predator prepared to eat his meal. Varian screamed in terror as chips of amber and drops of saliva, tears, and blood fell onto his face, blue eyes wide and taking in the monster his father had become once he emerged from the amber.

"Look at what you have done, child! Look at what you have created!" The creature howled, digging it's jagged crystals into Varian's body, clawing at his face with the hostility of a wild cat: out for blood. Varian tried to squirm away, screaming for his father, anyone, to help him. The feeling of steaming breath and sharp crystals digging into his tear stained cheeks caused him to weep, his fight giving out under his father. The beast smirked, rearing his head up and biting down into Varian's shoulder, causing the boy to scream until his voice was raw. Hot blood trailed down his arm and onto the floor, coating his shirt and the monsters sickly grin. It bubbled over his neck, so close to his face he could smell it. He felt like he was going to faint from the painful sensations. "Simple towns boy. Your home is tearing itself apart and you could do nothing to stop it! Pathetic," The monster-- Quirin-- snarled under his breath, deathly close to Varian's face, "now, you will rot here as a corpse forgotten to the world."  
Varian could barely cry, scream, yell, or even plead for mercy before the amber blade stabbed through his stomach, it's fiery touch burning his ripped skin and muscle. He felt blood fill up his throat and fall out in waves over his lips, coating his already soaked neck and chest. He screamed between coughs as the beast twisted the blade inside of him, forcing more blood out of the gaping hole through his stomach, staining the floor. Chips of amber stuck into his wound and grew like a weed, twisting and turning inside of Varian's body like nothing he had ever felt before. He felt their sharp points pierce and prod his skin from the inside out, snaking vines encasing bits of his torn up stomach, ribs, and lungs as they crawled out and attactched his broken body to the floor, anchoring him and forcing him to watch what had become of his father as he mutilated Varian. Quirin pulled out his hand and watched with a coldness Varian couldn't describe, one that made him feel guilty, and scoffed at the mess beneath him. Varian felt the blood clot into his shirt and the pools of it under him clot into his over grown hair, making him feel sticky and disgusting. He shivered when he felt a sense of frost over him, his hands and feet turning to icicles inside of him, spreading up his body slowly and dreadfully.  
The beast licked the blood off of his knife with a satisfied grin. "A decent meal. Finally, a use for an otherwise worthless child like you." He remarked, bending down and tracing Varian's face with his human hand, making him flinch in pain and fear, new tears sprouting under his eyes. "Oh, don't cry little one,"

/no./

"you won't feel a thing soon,"

/stop./

"you'll be as empty as your father's eyes, dear boy."

/please, i still have to save him. i can still save him./

"Hush now, child. You will see your father again soon. Just close your eyes."

/please, i still have time... i still... have... time.../

~------------------------------------•-----------------------------------~

Varian awoke with a shout, knocking over loose papers and books in his panic. He looked around his surroundings feverishly, his eyes slowly becoming used to the darkness surrounded him.  
'My lab,' he thought, relaxing the slightest bit, 'I'm still in my lab.'  
He leaned back into a chair with a huff, wiping sweat off of his pale, unhealthy skin. He rubbed his tires eyes, rings leaving bruises under his bottom lids. He turned the slightest bit to see Ruddiger sleeping pleasantly ontop of a stack of papers that had been disregarded after many, many, many failed experiments to break the amber.

'The amber.'

Varian threw himself around to look at the stone in the center of his room, letting out a breath of relief to see it still standing as it had been for weeks now. Still unbroken. Still encasing his poor father.  
Varian turned back to his desk and leaned his head on his hand, feeling his eyes droop in fatigue. He shook himself awake and stood up, stretching and rubbing his back. He grabbed his goggles, a chipping hammer, and a beaker before shaking Ruddiger, waking him up with a concerned chitter.  
"C'mon Ruddiger," he yawned, "I can't stop now. Let's get back to work."

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Thanks so much for reading you guys! I've been in TTS/RTA Hell recently and needed to make some fanfiction. This was based off of my own headcanon that Varian is DEFINETELY sleep deprived and is messed up through countless nightmares after his father's accident. I hope you guys enjoyed and I hope to make some more fanfic sometime in the future. Bye!


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